National Remarks delivered by H.E. Anna Karin Eneström, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the UN, at the Ministerial Meeting at the UN: Roadmap for Global Food Security – Call to Action, 18 May 2022
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Secretary Blinken, Excellencies, Colleagues,
we shouldn’t have to be here.
We should not be off track to meet SDG 2, when the alarm bell has been sounded for years.
The findings of the latest Global Report on Food Crisis are appalling, but so were last years’. The 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World warned that the number of people affected by hunger has been on the rise since 2014. Already in 2019, the WFP Hunger Map made it distressingly clear that one in nine do not get enough to eat. Many in countries here today.
We should not still have to make the case for investing in peace building, when benefits are so immensely clear, also for preventing hunger and famine. Our commitment to address key drivers of food insecurity - conflict but also impacts of climate change – must be realised. Famines does not occur naturally in our time. They are the result of political failure.
And we shouldn’t have grains enough to feed millions being trapped in silos because of Russian aggression. Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member, invaded a sovereign, democratic neighbouring country, in severe breach of the UN Charter. The Russian aggression, supported by Belarus, must stop to allow restart of Ukrainian agricultural production and exports.
We shouldn’t have to be here - but we are.
It is reassuring, though, that there seems to be strong emerging support for how to move away from food insecurity and fragility, towards zero hunger and sustainable inclusive food systems.
Several recommendations are captured in the Chairs Statement, which we are ready to join.
Sweden welcomes initiatives taken by the UN, G7, multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, regional organisations and others to address the triple food, energy and finance systems crisis. Our efforts must reach those most in need. Women and girls are adversely affected by the food crisis.
As a major provider of humanitarian and development funding and as an EU member, we contribute politically and financially.
When WFP, Unicef, IFAD and others scale up, they are assisted by predictable, flexible and already disbursed funding.
Sweden is proudly spearheading efforts to increase such funding to the UN system and has co-led humanitarian resources mobilisation, including for Yemen.
We are one of WFP biggest partners, with a new four-year agreement totalling 375 million USD. It is an increase in contribution by almost a quarter, as a response to soaring needs. The latest replenishment of IFAD left Sweden as a top five donor, with an 80 million USD commitment. Again, an increase, this time with 60 per cent. Sweden is a major contributor also to FAO.
Our bilateral development assistance to agriculture and food security is directed primarily to African countries and populations. A contribution of 25 million USD to UN Peace Building Fund, helps addressing the single most important driver of hunger. We remain committed to the 1 per cent target and encourage other countries to follow.
Sweden strongly supports calls for keeping markets open and trade unobstructed. Countries must refrain from measures restricting trade.
A lesson from the 2007/2008 crisis was the need for rapid, well-coordinated action. The UN Global Crisis Response Group is a good reply to that insight - both in itself and as an illustration of the networked multilateralism called for in Our Common Agenda. Sweden is co-sponsoring the General Assembly resolution on State of Global Food Insecurity, and I am looking forward to addressing the UN Security Council open debate tomorrow - again under US leadership. The UN remains indispensable in guiding our action.
As we move ahead, immediate actions should be coupled with long-term, systemic for sustainable and inclusive food systems. Urgency should be paired with perseverance. The lives of those starving must be saved, while the livelihoods of the food insecure must be improved.
Chair, someone referred to these days as a week of action. I welcome that, and Sweden is happy to be part of it. But I also want to say to all of us, that what matters equally much is what we do next week, and the weeks thereafter.
Thank you.